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Instructional Design & Education in Action

Principles and Effective Practices for Online Writing Instruction (OWI)

In a consultation with a Professional Editing and Writing faculty, we met to discuss the progress the faculty was making in their course development of a new online course being offered by their department.

As befitting a writing subject matter expert, the writing strategy was very well done, and I commended the faculty on the use of white spaces to create a pleasing outline for reading the various content material. While this may seem to be a trivial matter, it does address accessibility and universal design; techniques critical to full access of education for all.  We also discussed how important it was for the technology not to get in the way of their teaching but to support the delivery and enable the students to experience a pedagogical environment conducive to effective transfer of knowledge.

writing_online1

As part of the professional editing and writing discipline, there is a community and conference comprising college composition and communication where best practices in Online Writing Instruction (OWI) has been adopted by this community of educators. Along with the OWI best practices, there is a statement of principles and effective strategies which has been developed creating a guide which addresses pedagogy, institutional level concerns, teacher concerns, and research.

Taking a look at these strategies reminds me of the need to adhere to and aspire to standards that hopefully will promote a commitment by teachers, students, and higher educational institutions to quality and rigor in education.

The principles and practices of the OWI are divided into five sections. These are:

  1. An overarching principle
  2. Instructional principles
    • Focus on writing
    • Appropriate composition teaching/learning strategies
    • Appropriate onsite composition theories, pedagogies, and strategies
    • Online writing teachers should retain reasonable control over their own content
    • Alternative, self-paced, or experimental OWI models should be subject to the same principles
  3. Faculty principles
    • Online writing teachers should receive appropriate OWI-focused training
    • Online writing teachers should receive fair and equitable compensation
    • OWCs should be capped responsibly at 20 students per course with 15 being a preferable number
  4. Institutional principles
    • Students should be prepared by the institution and their teachers
    • Develop personalized and interpersonal online communities
    • Foster teacher satisfaction in online writing courses
    • OWI students should be provided support
    • Online writing lab administrators and tutors should undergo selection, training, and ongoing professional development
  5. Research and exploration
    • OWI/OWL administrators and teachers/tutors should be committed to ongoing research

I encourage you to read these principles and the examples provided for effective practices which addresses pedagogy and teacher concerns.  References and definitions is also provided to support the understanding of the principles.

Does your discipline and community have similar principles and strategies that can be a guide for your online course development and delivery?

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MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

As stated on their website, The MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication that aims to promote scholarship in the use of the Internet and web-based multimedia resources in higher education.

MERLOT

Vol. 8, No. 4 of the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT at http://jolt.merlot.org/) was recently published and is available online. The papers that comprise the issue are listed below.

Of particular interest are the papers on video conferencing guidelines, instructor-made videos, and which technology to use to teach online.

*** JOLT VOL. 8, NO. 4 CONTENTS ***

* Research Papers *

Contribution of Learner–Instructor Interaction to Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education Jo L. Shackelford and Marge Maxwell – HTML  PDF

Examining Differences in University Implementation of iTunes U Randy K. Yerrick and Joseph A. Johnson – HTML   PDF

Video Conferencing Guidelines for Faculty and Students in Graduate Online Courses Cynthia Gautreau, Barbara C. Glaeser, L. Carl Renold, Shariq Ahmed, Joyce Lee, JoAnn Carter-Wells, Mark Worden, E. Douglas Boynton, and Jim Schools – HTML   PDF

Student Perceptions of a Hybrid Discussion Format Yuankun Yao  - HTML   PDF

 

* Case Studies *

Instructor-Made Videos as a Scaffolding Tool Guohua Pan, Sandipan Sen, David A. Starrett, Curtis J. Bonk, Michael L. Rodgers, Mohan Tikoo, and David V. Powell  - HTML   PDF

Proactive Intervention Strategies for Improving Online Student Retention in a Malaysian Distance Education Institution Lai Cheng Tung  - HTML    PDF

 

* Concept Paper *

A Three-Step Model for Designing Initial Second Life-Based Foreign Language Learning Activities Feihong Wang, John K. Burton, and Jane Falls  - HTML   PDF

 

* Position Paper *

“Which Technology Should I Use to Teach Online?”: Online Technology and Communication Course Instruction Carolyn S. Carlson, Philip J. Aust, Barbara S. Gainey, Stephen Jake McNeill, Tamara Powell, and Leonard Witt   – HTML   PDF

JOLT website – Volume 8 Issue 4.

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Using MERLOT

How many faculty use MERLOT for its rich repository of content on a wide selection of educational materials?

MERLOT is designed to support communities of faculty and instructors working together to identify and use (as well as develop) good online resources for teaching and learning. MERLOT provides developed and distributed tools to enable the formation of communities engaged in building shared knowledge bases of learning materials.

In the coming weeks into 2013, MERLOT is offering a series of free webinars to introduce faculty and faculty professional development professionals on the services and communities of learning practice.

MERLOT Free Webinars (Click to open)

Sessions Currently Being Offered

MERLOT 101: Tues., Dec. 18 – 4 PM Eastern/1 PM Pacific

MERLOT 101 will include an introduction to the MERLOT homepage, as well as an explanation of the Browse and Search functions to find materials in your discipline.

MERLOT 101: Wed., Jan. 16 – 1 PM Eastern/ 10 AM Pacific

Special SessionPersonal Collections, Portals: Tues. – Jan. 29 – 3 PM Eastern/Noon Pacific

This session will demonstrate how to create a Personal Collection to save your favorite sites. We will also explore some of our Discipline Portals, Community Portals and Partner Portals to show you areas you may not be familiar with.

MERLOT 101: Thurs. Feb 14 – Noon Eastern/9 AM Pacific

MERLOT 101: Wed. Mar 13 – 3 PM Eastern/Noon Pacific

Special SessionUsing Content Builder: – Thurs., Mar 28 – 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific

Content Builder is a MERLOT tool that you can use to create your own web page and website. The website is then hosted on MERLOT and can be private or shared with the public.

MERLOT 101: Tues., Apr 16 – 11 AM Eastern/ 8 AM Pacific

Special SessionEncouraging Faculty to Use MERLOT: Fri. Apr 26 – 4 PM Eastern/ 1 PM Pacific

  • This session will demonstrate how to use MERLOT with your faculty and encourage them to use MERLOT. It is primarily targeted to Faculty Development personnel, but can be attended by anyone.

If you have any questions, please contact cathy@merlot.org

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Course Design and Accessibility

Course and Universal Design:

In an effort to offer examples and best practices of course design of blended and online courses to our faculty, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, asked faculty we have worked with to give their experiences of developing and teaching their courses.  These faculty have used various universal design concepts and course redesign methods in their courses to increase student interactivity, ensure social presence while ensuring learner control though accessible methods of delivery is maintained.  We trust their experiences will encourage you in your own teaching.

Here is a video from various campus leaders who sought to emphasize that we should “make sure campus technology is accessible to everyone who needs it before it is adopted”.

e-Learning Design: Where do you start?

Whenever we as Instructional Designers meet with faculty who will be teaching online for the first time, we first seek to understand their needs as it pertains to teaching online. Using their syllabus is a good starting point as it details the objectives and the purpose of the course. In many cases faculty are trying to determine how to structure their  existing face-to-face course in the online format, and do struggle with having to change their mode of teaching for the online modality. Where do they start?

One method is to start with their assessments and the outcome they want the students to have as a result of the assessment exercises. By creating these assessment activities before hand, the faculty will be able to align the course (learning) objectives with the assessment activities. These assessment activities can range from quizzes, exams, problem-based projects, papers, discussions, to various group activities.

Course Design:

Then the faculty can begin writing the learning objectives for the sections, chapters, modules, or weeks for the course. Statements like, “At the end of this course, students will be able to apply,….”. In essence, what is it that students will be able to do at the end of the activity, course section, or module.

I have called the activities various names, namely, activity, course section, and module. Whatever you name it, these refer to the subject or course folders in your course. Faculty can group the learning objectives based on what they will be teaching in each period/section. This outline provides consistency for students, as it gives structure to what is to be learned in each section, and what assessments will be given; all supporting the learning objectives .

Thus for each section, the faculty will have the learning objectives, the content, other learning materials, activities, assessments, and summary or review of what they learned. This process is repeated within each section or course folder.  Then and only then, will the faculty begin to look at technology,  because “the emphasis is on pedagogy, not technology” (Aycock, Garnham, and Kaleta, 2002).

Let us have your feedback on these articles.

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Providing Students with a Peer and Collaborative Learning Environment

In the July/August 2012 edition of Techtrends (Association of Educational Communications and Technology, AECT: Vol.56.4), the author shows educators the possibilities of enhancing instructional methods through constructivism and cooperative learning. Constructivism allows students to experience knowledge by acting upon the learning environment to acquire and test new knowledge, while cooperative learning allows students to work with their peers collaboratively on a project, but requires teachers to “structure cooperative interdependence among their students” (What is Cooperative Learning).

Peer and Collaborative Learning

In the Techtrends article, the author provides examples on fostering instruction using constructivism and cooperative learning through cloud computing methods. The first element begins with careful planning through establishing policies and procedures on the use of technology during the class. By using the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) as a starting point, the teacher allows the students to learn digital citizenship for the safe, legal, and ethical practices expected in a class activity. These expectations or norms set the criteria on how the technology will be used within class time, focused objectives, and collaborative learning among students.

The advent of cloud computing opens up the possibilities of shared spaces, document gathering, and collaboration among users. In the article the use of Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live is described showing how the peer and collaborative learning environment was able to take advantage of these services.

The article uses a case study and provides several strategies on integrating cloud computing towards enhancing Instruction through constructivism, cooperative learning.

  1. Group Projects: By providing focused work and objectives, the teacher is able to guide students on teamwork, problem solving, and group decision-making as they share and use files and applications over the internet. Apart from Google Docs, other cloud-based technologies such as WordPress and Blogger can be used.
  2. Peer Assessment: Students providing constructive feedback to their peers as they further their learning and growth in creating, manipulating, and presenting digital content is a powerful method of assessment. Using a rubric with established criteria will focus the students work towards shared and cooperative inquiry. Google Docs has a feature for sharing work, allowing for comments, and email notification. Other cloud-based technologies are e-Portfolios (http://mahara.org/), and SlideVibe.
  3. Student Constructed Presentations: Lecture is widely used in the classroom and over online courses. By facilitating student’s development of lecture materials, students are able to participate in their learning and inquiry of the class content. Use of Google Presentation, SlideRocket, and Prezi.
  4. Simultaneous Class Discussions: Having students sharing their thoughts, ideas, responses for explanations and revisions.
  5. Collaborative Reflection: Students writing interactive reflection through a collaborative journal or through sharing a document and then sharing their reflection on the content.
  6. Assisted Writing: Allowing peers and teacher to provide feedback as the paper is being developed, either within groups or individually based on the class size.
  7. Learning Illustrated: Use of images, flow charts, and diagrams to show process of problem solving or ideas on web development projects.
  8. Class Inventory: Use of a web form either as a web page or within your Learning Management System (LMS) to gauge student progress, classroom climate, or both.
  9. Collaborative Rubric Construction: Rubrics allow for the improvement of student understanding and performance. Creating a rubric and sharing it in Google Docs or your LMS to get student feedback and suggestion on project development or course progress.
  10. Website Publishing: Use of Google Doc, WordPress, or Blogger to create websites for the improvement and collaboration among students. Creating, manipulating and presenting digital content helps students in their learning and educational growth.

This article provides excellent suggestions on combining theory with authentic learning for a richer learning experience for students. There are a host of other cloud computing alternatives other than Google Docs and Microsoft Windows live which will provide the same pedagogical opportunities for student learning and peer and collaborative assessment. The important message, is to focus on the content and learning methods; not the technology. I encourage you to take a read.

Edited: 9/26/2012 @ 12:16 PM

I found this interesting tidbit on a collaborative learning process from Stanford University called SMILE (Stanford Mobile Inquiry-Based Learning Environment (SMILE); program that creates an ad hoc network to stimulate higher-order student learning) which is a  tool to support efforts related to the “Classroom 3.0″ model of learning, which involves having students conduct research, organize information and then present what they learn to their classmates.

See http://www.smileconsortium.org/

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Student Engagement: Teach for Success

As we start a new semester of teaching and learning, we find ourselves asking how can we be better educators towards facilitating stronger interaction among our students and encouraging them to take ownership of their own learning and understanding of the subject material? In short, improving the dynamics in the classroom towards knowledge and understanding.

I provide several ideas and activities towards getting your students engaged in the learning process.

Midpoint Reflection Process:

How many times have teachers found themselves trying to get their students to interact and take ownership in their learning and end up leading the conversation in the sessions. The strategy called “Midpoint Reflection Process” seeks to  to focus on questions or angles that might not otherwise occur to the whole group, and to receive contributions to the discussion from all members of the class. As the teacher you will need to pledge to silence for some period of time to ensure complete reflection from the students.  Here is a write-up on this activity in detail.

 

Guided Questions:

But how do get students to interact when they are not used to this process or unsure of how to be engaged? Here are three suggestions to try:

  1. Set an “active tone” early. On the first day, hand out small sticky notes and pose questions such as:  What intrigues you about this course? What will you contribute? What does the (topic) mean to you? They add their responses to group collections, organize them, and share with the class.
  2. To ensure that students do readings, ask for a ‘ticket-to-class’ – each student answers one question (I give out 3 colors of paper, along with associated questions). They hand in their ticket as they walk into the next class. You can then do a variety of things with their answers:  shuffle and re-distribute, call out one and ask for responses.
  3. Whether you use think-pair-share, small group work, or individual active engagement, give your students some examples from the literature to show how they enhance learning, and build some aspect of it into assignments and assessment.  These methods should show students that interacting and taking ownership are skills they need to do well in this course, and of course elsewhere in life.

 Modeling the Interaction:

As faculty, we could seek to model the interaction we seek from our students by providing them with some questions to guide their reading and our class discussion of it. Then after a few classes, you might prompt students to form their own questions of the material.  This can be done in advance at home; through your Blackboard course threaded  discussion, blog, or journal; or even in class, on sticky notes, where students write discussion questions anonymously and post them on a board.  As a class you choose the questions that will guide your discussion. You might even save a few minutes at the end of class to “debrief” the questions: which were useful in sparking productive discussion?

Preparing base questions that you want your students to address is a beginning to getting class discussion started, and then requesting them to hand in a set of discussion questions based on what they read from the course materials. By using these questions, the students will know their questions will be addressed/discussed and hopefully this will lead other students to be part of the engagement of ideas.

Readings:

Where can you find other ideas on encouraging engagement among your students? Books! I provide some great materials below for you to use.

All the best in your teaching!

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Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission? Copyright Law

Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission?

U.S. Copyright Law and the Fair Use Doctrine– Best Practices Online

In a recent webinar hosted by the company, Sonic Foundry, maker of the Mediasite Lecture Capture system, which is used at Missouri State University, a copyright law expert, Joseph T. Leone, presented on best practices for using online materials for distance education courses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Webinar: Copyright Basics for Online Presentations, is now available for on-demand viewing.

Mr. Leone highlighted the need for institutions and individuals in higher education to be cognizant of:

  • Ownership of a valid copyright
  • Copying of original elements
  • Substantial similarity between the infringing work and the copyrighted work

The entire webinar was recorded and has been made available for others to view in order to educate members of the higher education community on the U.S. Copyright Law and the Fair Use Doctrine (PDF Document). One of the recommendations made by Mr. Leone is for each higher educational institution to have an Institutional Copyright Policy which educates and holds its members accountable for being in compliance with the copyright laws.

At the end of the webinar, questions posed to Mr. Leone were also informative addressing permissions from publishers, digitization transformation copies of videos, pictures or audio, use of movie clips in online courses which are being charged to students, copyright protection for all materials, ownership of online course materials, and sourcing and providing citations for copyright acknowledgement.

Along with the webinar, the PowerPoint presentation (PDF Document) has been made available as well as other applicable web materials for your perusal. We trust this presentation will add to the body of knowledge to this very important topic for our faculty, staff, and students.

Additional Web Resources:

Digital Copyright and Fair Use Resources

U.S. Copyright Office – Fair Use

Court won’t reduce student’s $675G fine for illegally downloading 30 songs

What the Georgia State Verdict Means for Libraries and the Publishing Industry

 Contact: 

As always, if you need further clarification, please contact the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (Instructional Designers) at instructionaldesign@missouristate.edu or the Library at http://library.missouristate.edu/forms/reference/consultations.htm for further information.

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Blackboard Tips: Individual Testing Times

Question: I have a student in class who needs extra time to take tests on Blackboard. Is it possible to make a test available for one student longer than the other students?

This can be done through Adaptive Release. First you must create a second copy of the test and give this test a unique name. You will have a copy of the test for students who do not need extra time and a copy of the test for students who do need extra time. This will create two test columns in the Grade Center; one for each copy of the test. But the students not requiring additional testing time will be exempt from this second exam column and students who did need extra time are exempt from the first exam column.

How to create copy of the test:

1. From the Control Panel under Course Tools select Tests, Surveys, and Pools.

2. Click Tests.

3. From the list of existing tests, click the double-arrow next to the test you want to copy and select Copy.

4. A second copy of the test will appear. Click the double-arrow next to the copied test and select Edit. In the Test Canvas select the double-arrow next to the test name and select Edit.

5. Rename the test so that it is not the same as your original test.

In addition to creating a separate test it is also recommended that you create two groups of students. One group will be all the students who do not need extra time and the second group will be the student(s) who require extra time.

Once you have added both tests to a Content Area you will Edit the Test Options setting the timer for the desired amount of time for each testing situation; one for the regular testing time and one for student(s) who require additional testing time. Next you will create an Adaptive Release rule for both tests so that only the students in the appropriate group will see the test assigned to them.

How to create Adaptive Release rule for the test:

1. Click the double-arrow next to the test name and select Adaptive Release.

2. Notice that the Dates and Times you choose in Test Options automatically appear here.

3. Under Membership, select the Course Group that will be assigned this test.

4. Submit.

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Learning and Teaching Trends for 2012

With the new year already bringing its share of angst and work for faculty and instructors, it is always helpful to be aware of the various technology and learning trends and predictions that could affect ones’ teaching and delivery of course materials and knowledge.

 

I present five articles (blogs) that speak to the various trends to watch out for based on opinions of persons in the field of instructional design and teaching bring to higher education.

Articles on Trends for 2012:

  1. Learning Trends affecting learning experiences
    • The author discusses content curation, developing learning in the cloud, flipped learning, gamification, and new blended learning.
  2. Top six e-Learning Predictions
    • Predictions on things that could happen in 2012 affecting teaching, learning, technology, business of elearning policy, regulations, student behavior, or other related items.
  3. Five Higher Education Trends for 2012
    • Higher education institutions will look to improve the learning experience through analytics and personalized learning environments, while reducing costs with digital resources and cloud technologies.
  4. Information Technology Trends to watch in 2012
    • Four eminent futurists predict the trend lines for 6 major issues facing IT in higher education in 2012.
  5. 2012: What’s Hot and What’s Not
    • IT in Higher Education

We trust these articles and predictions will give you food for thought as we continuously redefine our teaching and the effect it will have on student learning.

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